Mourning, battling kidney ailment, returns to action for Heat.

Publication: South Florida Sun-Sentinel (via Knight-Ridder/Tribune News Service)

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COPYRIGHT 2001 South Florida Sun-Sentinal

Byline: Ira Winderman

MIAMI _ Alonzo Mourning was back where he sat five months ago, when he revealed what he and some of the nation's leading kidney specialists stressed was a season-ending illness.

Tuesday, with that season slipping away, Mourning returned to that same podium in the interview area at AmericanAirlines Arena, this time without any physicians at his side.

This no longer was solely about focal glomerulosclerosis, a serious kidney ailment. This was about a basketball player who needed to play basketball.

"I have developed a love for the game that is immeasurable," Mourning said. "It's hard to trade the feeling, of being out on the court, for anything."

It is a trade Mourning no longer was willing to make.

With agent and confidant David Falk saying the illness is in remission, but with risks remaining, Mourning, against the advice of some of those closest to him, donned his No. 33 for the first time since his October announcement,...

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